Meta Connect 2024: Cheaper Quest 3S Headset, New AI Features, Orion AR Glasses And More

At Meta Connect 2024, the two-day event on Sept. 25-26, Facebook’s parent company showcased a range of tech products and innovations in the areas of augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and wearables.

The Orion AR glasses, a prototype that creates an augmented space, were announced by the company on the first day of the event. Other introductions include a new Quest 3S mixed reality headset at a lower price, plus new Meta AI features for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Here’s a closer look at the technologies unveiled at Meta Connect 2024:

Meta has introduced new multimodal features based on its Llama 3.2 models to improve Meta AI and its other AI products. For instance, you can talk to Meta AI on Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram DM, and it will now reply out loud. You can get answers to queries, information on a topic or just let the voice assistant crack a joke. Meta has said that as the feature roll outs, users will be able to choose from different voice options, including the AI voices of Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan Michael Key and Kristen Bell.

Meta AI can now be used to answer questions about photos that you share in your chats with it. For example, if you share a picture of a flower, it can help you learn more about it. It can also help you edit pictures. Send Meta AI an image through chat and tell it what should be added, deleted or altered in the picture; let’s say, you can add a rainbow or replace the ground underneath a goat with a surfboard. With Meta AI’s new backgrounds feature, you can also generate a fun background if you wish to reshare a picture from feed to your Instagram story.

Meta is expanding its AI-powered Imagine features. You can now visualise yourself as a superhero or anything else directly in your Facebook feed, stories and profile photos, and share your AI-generated photos with friends. Also, Meta AI can recommend captions for your Instagram and Facebook stories.

The company also said it is testing a Meta AI translation tool that will translate Reels' audio automatically so that people who speak another language can also enjoy your content. The tool will mimic the speaker's voice in a different language and synchronise their lips with automatic dubbing and lip syncing.

Meta released its Quest 3S headset, a device that allows mixed reality and immersive experiences, ranging from gaming to cinema-sized viewing of TV shows to personal training. The headset is similar to its predecessor, Meta Quest 3, in mixed reality capabilities and performance, but comes at a lower price tag, starting at $299.99.

The headset is powered by Horizon OS, which Meta has updated for spatial computing, offering support for 2D apps like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Its Travel Mode permits use during transit, while tools such as Painting VR and Gravity Sketch allow you to virtually experience a painter’s studio and use your creativity on virtual canvases. Meta has worked on improving the spatial audio and contrast and colour on Passthrough, a feature that offers a real-time view of your surroundings outside of the view on Meta Quest, to make it more immersive.

The new Theater View enables you to watch favourite shows on YouTube, Prime Video, Twitch and Netflix in a theatre-like experience. Plus, a new group workout mode is available on Supernatural, a feature that lets you workout in virtual locations around the world, offering workout recommendations and music options.

Meta is adding new AI features to its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which allow you to take calls, listen to music, take pictures and videos, live steam directly from the glasses, and more. The new AI features help remember things like parking spot, setting a reminder for a future task, recording and sending voice messages on WhatsApp and Messenger, and translating speech in real time. Meta is also launching a new, limited edition set of transparent Wayfarer frames packed with the tech. 

Video has been added to Meta AI. So, if you're exploring a new town wearing your smart glasses, you can ask Meta AI questions about landmarks you pass or get suggestions for what to see next; a hands-free walking tour of sorts. Or let’s say, at the grocery store, you can ask Meta AI to assist you in meal planning based on what you see as you browse the aisles.

You can easily get information about something you see. For example, if you say, “Hey Meta, tell me more about this monument,” the smart glasses will be your guide. Some small—but smart—changes: You no longer have to say “look” when you’re asking about something you’re looking at. Also, you don’t need to say “Hey Meta” over and over again; just say it once, and follow up with more conversation without the callout.  

Meta is also collaborating with Be My Eyes, a free app that pairs low-vision and blind individuals with sighted volunteers so they can discuss what's in front of them. The volunteer can see the point of view of these individuals through the glasses and POV video calling, and can then provide real-time assistance.

At Connect 2024, Meta also previewed Orion, a pair of glasses offering immersive experiences through augmented reality. Using large holographic displays and integrating contextual AI, the glasses allow you to put 2D and 3D experiences and content in the augmented world, use your hands to control the paddle and tap and pinch augmented buttons. They look like regular glasses, can be used both indoors and outdoors, and have Meta AI integrated.

Orion is still in prototype and will not be available to customers as of now. Meta said that beginning at Connect and continuing through the year, it will allow access to Orion product prototype for its employees and select external audiences for further iteration and development.